


Of Circles and Secrets

by tatertotarmy



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 11:35:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3445667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatertotarmy/pseuds/tatertotarmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The advisors look at her in confusion as she calmly asks that they send soldiers to Gwaren. Cecilia Trevelyan has always been a studious, serious woman who took her duties seriously. To suggest that the Inquisition investigate a port town on the coast of Ferelden is strange for the dutiful Inquistior. Still, Cecilia urges that they investigate. What she finds brings up a memory of the Circle, something she had tried to forget after countless years...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Circles and Secrets

“Inquisitor, are you sure we should expend our resources there? Gwaren has maintained peace despite the war, and has the protection of Ferelden as well.”

“An entrance to the Deep Roads is near there. If an archdemon is truly active, then they may be facing difficulties, especially if their Templars have left as well,” Cecilia Trevelyan’s voice was controlled, careful as she looked Cullen in the eye. Leliana and Josephine exchanged glances, never quite seeing her act so forthright on an issue before. As she pulled a stray blonde hair from her face, Cecilia looked between her advisors with the same serious look she held most of the day. 

Josephine looked to her clipboard, “Regardless, if we were to send troops to Gwaren, the King may think this some sort of attack.”

Leliana stepped towards the table, “It would be better to send scouts, to truly see if there is a threat.”

“I will go,” Cecilia spoke.

“What?” Cullen’s mouth fell agape, “Is this truly important? What is out there that needs to be taken care of?”

“I simply wish to check on Gwaren’s status,” Cecilia looked down towards the spot on the map, keeping composed. It was what the advisors had come to expect from the studious Circle mage. Despite being renounced by the Trevelyan family, she held the elegance and poise of a noble whenever she wasn’t deep into her studies. Attempting to get information from a facial flaw or slip of the tongue was fruitless. 

Cullen sighed, “I understand that, but there are more important matters to attend to.”

“Gwaren is a week’s travel. The Ball is in one month, and everything has already been prepared. This will not take me from pressing duties.”

“But we will need to make sure – ”

“Perhaps we should let the Inquisitor go,” Leliana suggested. Cecilia turned her head to the spymaster, a subtle hint of approval on her pink lips. 

“Leliana…” Josephine warned as she furiously scribbled something onto her clipboard.

“She is our leader,” Leliana folded her arms as she looked over Cecilia with a knowing look, “Perhaps we should listen.”

“I would still appreciate an explanation,” Cullen grunted.

“You will receive an explanation at a later date. I’m afraid I must prepare my supplies,” Cecilia nodded her head to each of her advisors before making her way towards the exit all too quickly. The three advisors simply watched her leave, only Leliana watching with a smile on her face.

 

It was only a week before the Inquisiton left for the ball when the Inquisitor’s group returned with a small group of civilians. Later, Cecilia would report that darkspawn had indeed emerged from the Deep Roads, causing destruction to a town that barely had the capabilities to send messages to Denerim without interception. When Cecilia, Blackwall, Cole, and Solas arrived, there was death on the outskirts of town. The local Chantry was in shambles, and everyone had evacuated into one building. Cecilia left some Inquisition soldiers and the promise of more help, and she also decided to take in those who had been orphaned by the burning Chantry. Sisters walked the stairs to the gardens to help with the makeshift Chantry, the Revered Mother worked with Mother Giselle, and some adults began to help as workers.

The most peculiar addition to Skyhold was the children: all orphans taken in by the Chantry only to be striped of a home for a second time.

Blackwall knew that something was different when he saw Cecilia sitting on a bench, her current book of choice in hand. Usually, he never saw the Inquisitor emerge from the library unless she was leaving or taking her usual morning stroll around the castle. He remembered waking in her bed to find her gone, the bed cold as if he had spent the night alone. He had felt as if his heart had been ripped out, that she had abandoned him at last, only to find her huddled over her desk, reading a book that he had interrupted the previous night. He remembered her looking over at him, genuinely confused as to why he looked pale as a sheet.

She was always focused on learning more and bettering herself. It was just another reason why he constantly questioned her choice to be with him. 

“What’s that?”

A child stood before her, curious blue eyes trailing over the worn text in her hands. He was a thin lad, one who probably had difficulty on the journey to Skyhold. Upon his head was a tuft of brown hair that curled at the ends.

Cecilia took a glance up from her book, face softening at the child that had come to talk to her, “It’s a book about the Champion of Kirkwall.” Blackwall chuckled, remembering her sparking curiosity after meeting Varric’s friend. Apparently, the Circles hadn’t kept their libraries updated with current events.

“Who?”

“The Champion of Kirkwall. The woman who drove the Qunari out of Kirkwall when they invaded.”

The child’s eyes sparked, “Really…?”

A small smile pulled on the corner of her lips, “Would you like to hear it?”

The child furiously nodded and sat next to Cecilia on the bench, curiously looking over at the text. Blackwall watched as Cecilia calmly began to read from the pages, not caring when the child interrupted her with questions or made a noise at the building suspense of the Qunari attack. When the supposed chapter ended, the child continued to pelt her with questions about what happened next or what led up to the evil Qunari attacking the city. Cecilia answered them all, but Blackwall began to notice that some of the details were withheld, censored. The woman he knew would simply regurgitate facts as if she were a book herself. When the child finally scurried away to join some of the other children in the field, Blackwall walked over towards Cecilia while her attention was still away from the book.

“I didn’t know you liked children,” Blackwall spoke as he sat down next to Cecilia. She glanced his way, not all that surprised that he had appeared. He wouldn’t be surprised if she knew he was there the entire time.

“I’ve taught plenty of apprentices before. Most of them were children,” Cecilia answered softly, closing the book and setting it in her lap.

“Still, hard not to see you being anything but a teacher to a kid.”

“I suppose it would be surprising…” Cecilia fell silent for a second, her fingertips tracing the spine of the book. Blackwall looked over to the children playing in the courtyard, all unaware of what danger faced them outside of the walls. He heard Cecilia let out a breath of air, and he knew that she had begun to watch them as well.

“His name is Eric…” Cecilia spoke quietly.

“Hm?”

“The child.”

“You talk with him often.”

“He approaches me whenever I’m outside. It is…nice.”

“What do you mean?”

Cecilia looked up to the sky, tracing the clouds with her blue eyes. She scratched her nose, which was more than bent and jagged from too many blows to the face. Blackwall often imagined what she looked like before the Conclave, in the Circle surrounded by books and apprentices. 

“I…never thought I would meet him.”

Blackwall stared. Her eyes never left the boy playing in the field.

“You are aware that children born in the Circle are taken away directly after birth,” Cecilia took in a deep breath, “When I was much younger…I had dallied with a Templar. There were no feelings involved. It was simply a way to expend ourselves. I had never thought of consequences…until the healers found something else inside of me.”

She brushed a hair from her face, “I never ousted the Templar. There was never more than sex between us. Plus…I knew that the child would be taken anyway even if the father was identified. I tried to keep my studies up. I tried to distance myself. But…when I gave my child away, I didn’t know what to do.”

“The Trevelyans entered my life again, trying to cover up a potential loose thread. But I didn’t care. I could only remember the child in my arms, the blue eyes looking up at me. I gave up any chance of seeing my son again…and now…”

Blackwall looked towards the boy playing in the fields, “And that…is your child?”

Cecilia slowly nodded, “I found his location by accident when my mother was busy trying to cover it up. With everything going on…I wanted to make sure that he was alright.”

“Does he know?”

“No. And I would prefer it stay that way. I don’t want to further disrupt his life than I already have.”

The boy had a round face like his mother’s. His eyes were bright blue, his hair as wavy as his mother’s only in a dark shade. Blackwall’s eyes fell upon the nose, straight and prominent upon his face. What he imagined Cecilia’s to be before she broke it into unrecognition. 

“He looks like you…”

Blackwall looked over to Cecilia, who was looking down with a red face, “I…suppose he does.” Her voice was quiet, unsure. She looked back to Eric, looking over the features again as if to find her in him.

“He likes you, too.”

“That’s all I can ask for…” Cecilia smiled and leaned against Blackwall, resting her head on his shoulder as she looked at her child. Blackwall smiled, draping his arm over her shoulder.


End file.
